First edition. Eberstadt
136:667d: “Printed in a few copies ‘for private circulation
only.’ An interesting journal of the Yellowstone Country, and because
of the circumstances of its printing, extremely difficult to come by.” Howes
S170. Streeter Sale 4123. The book is an idiosyncratic example of bookmaking,
not only because of its unusual illustrative matter, but also because
of the author’s selection of old English type and the binding created
in the author’s own tannery. The black and white photographs are
candids taken by the party. The color photographs are the work of William
Henry Jackson (1843-1942), who served as official photographer of the
Hayden survey from 1870-1878 and took the first photos of Yellowstone
Park. “William Henry Jackson, the greatest of all Western photographers
[with the] ability to capture the many scenes of sublime beauty in the
West on his photographic plates and stereopticon slides, did more than
anyone else to publicize the tourist’s West... Jackson, like the
avant-garde writers, the scientists, and even the local colorists of
his time, was helping to usher in a new era of realism that would in
part replace, and at the same time, as far as subject matter was concerned,
parallel the romanticism of an earlier day” (Goetzmann, Exploration & Empire,
pp. 499-500).

Leaving Chicago on August 31,
1901, in the company of three other people (his daughter Emma, friend
Frank Pingree, and the latter’s son Everett), Schmidt embarked
on a trip inspired by a painting of Yellowstone geysers he saw while
waiting in a dining room for his omelet to be served. After describing
his train trip West, which included a few humorous detours, Schmidt and
his party spent several weeks in Yellowstone enjoying the sites and having
various adventures and misadventures, most of which Schmidt describes
in a jocular, even-handed manner. Some of the incidents seem to be reflective
of the author’s own amused awareness of his greenhorn-tourist status.
At one point, a trip from the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is preceded by
Schmidt’s elaborate order to the kitchen for lunch, which included
an extra two-dollar bill to ensure service. However, when the lunch was
opened the next day, it turned out to be nothing but ruined scraps. He
also describes a somewhat successful fishing trip in which several trout
were caught. However, upon arriving at the hotel and handing over the
fish to the cook with instructions for preparation, the fish were ruined
because they were fried in “wagon-grease butter.”

The journal concludes with
a visit and descent into a mine near Butte, Montana. Schmidt remarks: “Here
comes our party and with them the mine boss, Capt. Sammie. He looks like
a highwayman, but we find out later he is a Baptist deacon and plays
the organ up at the big camp tent” (p. 85). The trip to the mine
also includes a recounting of a shoot-out that occurred a few months
before their arrival. On the return trip to Chicago, the party stopped
briefly in Salt Lake City. For more on Detroit entrepreneur Schmidt,
see The Book of Detroiters: A Biographical Dictionary... (Chicago:
A. N. Marquis & Company, 1914), p. 198. ($1,500-3,000)